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Facing the F.A.C.T.S.

This is a short article about the FACTS Coaching approach.
Leaders - you can use it to embrace the elephant in the room and have more productive development conversations with your people.

The FACTS Coaching approach was developed by John Blakey and Ian Day. You can take a deep dive in their book Challenging Coaching. I highly recommend it for coaches and leaders. And for the record… I have no association other than being a fan of the material.

The FACTS approach requires the Coach to enter the Zone of Uncomfortable Debate (ZOUD) more often, more skilfully and with the total belief this is in the best long term interest of the coaching relationship and the wider organisational system.

The same applies to leadership in situations where there’s an elephant in the room. Entering the ZOUD (and dealing with the elephant), is required for the best long term interest of the relationship and wider organisational system.

FACTS stands for...


  • Feedback
  • Accountability
  • Courageous Goals
  • Tension
  • Systems Thinking

FACTS keeps you in the ZOUD

It requires courage and robust leadership.

In a nutshell it means getting to a shared understanding and making the following agreements:

  • FEEDBACK: You will provide feedback on what you observe and the impact you see it having. It is understood this feedback is in the service of their development.

  • ACCOUNTABILITY: They will honour their commitments and you will hold them to account.

  • COURAGEOUS GOALS: They will be ambitious and go after courageous goals. Goals that are at their development edge.

  • TENSION: You will both hold the tension. You both embrace the value of the tension and the growth that ultimately comes from it.

  • SYSTEMS THINKING: The conversations are inclusive and consider the impacts and implications to self, others, and the organisation system. It requires thinking beyond I, and us towards the big we.

Valuing Tension

What's going to help you enter the ZOUD with more ease and safety is changing your relationship to tension. When you appreciate the value and importance of tension your relationship to it shifts. 

You can read more about that here... Feeling the Tension
Find some practical tips for using tension as a compass here... Noise in the System
Coaching support to make that shift accelerates your progress.
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